The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1887-04-22

together with three large and elega mt
grocery and dry goods houses, with a
general plumber store attachments"
where you can buy anything you wish,
from penny whistle to last years
goose yoke. In short, you enter any
one of them, and after viewing the sub
stantials and elegancies of life, you turn
to the promiscuous department, where
you are reminded of Fish, needles and
cheese" sign we once saw on q gro
Gerry store in New hampshire. They
are respectively owned and kept by G..
+. Davis, Marston & Larson and Kelly
4 Riley, and are all frst-class houses.
Which il the best? do you ask. Well,
gentlemen, we can only say, in the Ian
guage of the Englishman who, while ex-
hibiting his wax figures, was asked by
some children which one was Washing
ton and which was Wellington, said !:
"My little dears, makes no distinc-
tons; yer pays yer money and takes yer
CHOICE"
| Wehave also five saloons here, and
when the high license first came ont
it stirred the dry bones and made them
crack, but the old adage Gas long az she
cracks she holds" appears to be good
i'm this case, for there will probably be
four saloons running the coming year,
nevertheless, the 500 license.
| We have three or four ministers,
three physicians and three attorneys,
| the three kinds of doctors who are sup
posed to "cure ali the Ills that flesh Is
heir to" OF course We have insurance
agents, carpenters, ETC., ETC., gentlemen
all. And-shall we own it-one light
ming rod wagon.
Now, as TO the village ITSELF its loca-
ton, etc., what shall we say? Shall we
admit what we have heard currently re-
ported, and warmly maintained by
some, that this place is and was the
original site of the garden of Eden?
That here the virgin beauties of nature
first smiled Oh man, and that it was here
that
"The radient morn of Creation broke.
And the world In the smile of God awoke. .
and the young stars first attuned their
infant voices To sweetest melody, and
the lion and the lamb were i'm perfect
unity and harmony, which unity and
harmony still wells this place and envel-
opes the inhabitants thereof like man
tie ofcharityp No; for while we admit
that the last part of their statements
seem almost inseparable, truth COM
i pels us To say that we believe the Gar
den was further east, and for the follow
ing reason: We do not find, after care
full research and inquiry, any trace OF
three rivers branching off here; but we
do find what where once three beautiful
lakes, in whose pure depths the stars
; were mirrored, but the waters of two OF
which (the truth must be told) now, by
their fOulness seem conclusively tC
prove the doctrine of total depravity
Now, if any one doubts it, let him &c
some warm day to the shores of Crysta
Lake and take Whit or two of dead
fish, and then TO the shores of Lilly
Lake and smell the ambrosial perfume
of decaying vegetation, and tell us if the
l doctrine OF total depravity is not true
5 and that this is the original site of the
5 Garden. Why any human being should
to hamper and thwart the city father
in their laudable efforts to raise the wa
v tiers thereof, 80 to drown out the stencil
r of those augean stables. Ought no
2 those bodies of water to be restored I,
g their pristine purity and beauty for tn,
S health, as we'll as the pleasure of tin
a inhabitants of this burg and others, s.
l that the
: "Breeze that curls the lakes bright lip,
But lifts purer, deeper water Ia the light?
e Who that believes in the melieniun
dare say no.
|, N. B.-If anyone has any furthe
. proof that tins was the garden of Eden
we shall be glad TO hear from them.
Yours, X. d Y.